“Relatives who lived in different cities often only saw each other rarely in the past centuries. Sadly, with the state of the world back then, long-distance travel between cities was often expensive and dangerous. Be it the threat of bandits, or all sorts of wildlife, there were plenty of dangers that awaited travelers in the days long past.

The pleasant, safe roads we enjoy today is something many youths had taken for granted, but even their parents or grandparents could likely tell them of days when that was not the case at all.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, in the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 493 FP.

“About damn time you all showed up and visited,” complained Varsha when she met Reinhardt and his family at the city square of Zephirous on the evening they arrived in town. Despite her age – easily pushing her eighties by then – the old woman was still hale and hearty, spirited and robust in both body and soul. The responsibility of being the Mayor of the city seemed to have invigorated her rather than cause her stress and hardship. “I’d thought y’all had forgotten this old hag and would only come over at my funeral!”

“Speak for yourself, you old fart! You don’t look like you’d go to hell without giving Tohrmut a brawl first. The saying that scourges live forever really applies to you, doesn’t it?” replied Elfriede just as crassly to her grandmother. The way the two interacted was far more crude and straightforward than any grandparent and grandchild Reinhardt knew, but he had grown used to it over time. “How’s the city going, anyway? Noticed that it’s at least a cleaner shithole than before on my way in.”

“It’s getting better. Tohrmut take my snatch, but that Prince of yours actually came through with all he promised, and then some,” replied Varsha with a smile on her old face. The old woman clearly looked like someone who lived a fulfilling life at that moment, with the way she beamed. “Those dwarves actually re-built this shithole from the ground up, for the better, and they left us mostly on our own too. I could get used to neighbors like these all right.”

“I got nowhere near the sort of attachment you got to this place, but glad to hear, I guess,” replied Elfriede with a nod. Despite the crass manner with which the pair of grandmother and granddaughter spoke to one another, there was some notable affection between them still. “You gonna stay mayoring up till you croak? Or you gonna hand it over to some young ‘uns?”

“Oh, I ain’t gonna do all the job till I croak. I ain’t that dumb, girl. I got Annelise working as my assistant all these years to get her ready for the job so I can hoist it over to her once this term’s done,” admitted Varsha with cackling laughter. “She’d be a good fit anyway, and I already got approval from my shorter, hairier counterpart for the handover in a few years.”

“Ahem!” interjected a gruff voice from the side. Reinhardt turned his head to see an older dwarf he did not recognize walk towards them. The way Elfriede had not reacted to his presence made him dismiss the dwarf as a threat, however. His wife’s senses were too sharp to not notice such things and he trusted it with his life. “Madam Creussens, would it kill you to refer to your fellow Mayor with more respect?”

“Ah, Rein, Friede, let me introduce you to Lothar Ackermann, Mayor of the Zephirous undercity,” said Varsha when she noticed the dwarf’s approach, one hand gesturing towards the dwarven man. The playful smirk on her lips never went away as she continued on, though. “Also, Loth, you are shorter and hairier than me, so I’m not exactly slandering you here!”

Under the dwarf’s breath, Reinhardt could hear the man grumble about things like why he was so foolish as to jump in to the offer to become mayor of a new town and whatnot, though from the tone, he could tell that the dwarf did not mean anything too serious about it, and it was more of an affectionate sort of annoyance. If even he could hear it, he knew his wife could, and he noticed her smirk as well, while the smirk on Varsha’s lips just grew wider.

Reinhardt knew that Elfriede must have used her magic to let the wind carry the dwarf’s grumbling to her grandmother’s ear as well.

“An honor to make your acquaintance, Mayor Ackermann,” said Reinhardt politely to assuage the dwarf a bit even while he struggled not to smirk or laugh from how his wife and grandmother-in-law were acting. “We’ll be in your care for a while to come.”

“Ah, greeting, Captain Edelstein, Mrs. Edelstein,” replied the dwarven mayor with equal politeness. The dwarf looked a touch embarrassed to have his fellow mayor speak so crudely of him in front of others, but was politically savvy enough to pretend like it never happened. “I have received a copy of your request and approved it. I hope your fine Company will remain a friend to our Kingdom in the future.”

“Knallzog is where we originated from, and the kingdom has never treated us falsely so far. As such, we are happy to maintain this cooperation, Sir,” replied Reinhardt. Amongst the clauses in the contracts the Free Lances took, there was a clause that forbids the Company from being deployed against the interests of Knallzog. It was not an uncommon clause for companies that originated from or was based in one nation like theirs.

“It pleases me to hear that, Captain. In which case, I bid you a warm welcome to our fine city, and hope that your planned endeavor goes smoothly,” replied the dwarven Mayor with a polite nod. He had naturally been briefed and received a copy of Reinhardt’s request to do a recruitment drive in the city, as well as his temporarily stationing his company in Zephirous.

Normally recruitment drives from mercenary companies would be far more limited, if they were even allowed, but Reinhardt did receive a permit from the Crown Prince himself to do recruitment in the former Holy Kingdom’s regions, and even a decade later, that permit was still valid.